Sunday, 22 February 2015

Over the last two years there have been a lot of words spoken about mercy and Pope Francis has said that the Church should be a field hospital that brings healing.

Sadly there are modern day Pharisees in the church who are more interested in gaining money - for example, certain clerics in Germany who would tolerate pretty much anything as long as they get their hands on money through the church tax.

There is nothing merciful in pretending that sin is not sin or in denying and undermining the words of Christ about marriage.

There is nothing merciful in making divorce easier and the tragedy that this brings to innocent children and spouses whose lives are destroyed.

There is nothing merciful about giving Holy Communion to a to-life politicians who use it as a publicity stunt to promote their murderous agendas.

True mercy consists of turning to Christ and receiving His forgiveness - in Baptism and after this in Confession, the sacrament of Reconciliation.

Let the cry for mercy continue, but let's not confuse it with the actions of those who bow before powerful, anti - life politicians, mocking those who are faithful or the actions of those who would trample on everything Christ teaches as long as they rake in money in church taxes.

Let us take a moment to pray for Cardinal Burke that he might remain strong and for all who hold and teach the Catholic Faith which comes to us from the Apostles.

Monday, 2 February 2015

Akita is a continuation of Fatima, in my opinion, The Pope Emeritus stated this long ago. We must pay attention to what Our Lady says at Akita.

All Catholics have been called to repent and say the rosary and Mary stated that if people did repent, she could stop the tribulation that is coming.

So, why did people not follow Akita? It has been ignored to our own peril. Akita is the apparition for our time. Some of the same ideas were shared by Our Lady at Betania on a great tribulation which will proceed before people repent. I suggest those who are concerned and worried read these words from Our Mother, especially at Akita.

Here is the last message from Our Lady from October 13, 1973:

“If men do not repent and better themselves, the Father will inflict a terrible punishment on all humanity. It will be a punishment greater than the deluge, such as one will never have seen before. Fire will fall from the sky and will wipe out a great part of humanity, the good as well as the bad, sparing neither priests nor faithful. The survivors will find themselves so desolate that they will envy the dead. The only arms which will remain for you will be the Rosary and the Sign left by My Son. Each day recite the prayers of the Rosary. With the Rosary, pray for the Pope, the Bishops and the priests.

“The work of the devil will infiltrate even into the Church in such a way that one will see Cardinals opposing Cardinals, Bishops against other Bishops. The priests who venerate Me will be scorned and opposed by their confreres (other priests). Churches and altars will be sacked. The Church will be full of those who accept compromises, and the demon will press many priests and consecrated souls to leave the service of the Lord.

“The demon will be especially implacable against the souls consecrated to God. The thought of the loss of so many souls is the cause of My sadness. If sins increase in number and gravity, there will no longer be pardon for them.

“...Pray very much the prayers of the Rosary. I alone am able to still save you from the calamities which approach. Those who place their confidence in Me will be saved.”

Thursday, 29 January 2015

When I was growing up, Cardinal Josef Mindszenty was a hero in my family. My grandmother from Bohemian and Moravian background would speak of him as a saint. He should be canonized as such and the be the patron saint of those falsely accused of ODD..Read about him here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J%C3%B3zsef_MindszentyAnd, when I was six weeks old, Pope Pius XII said this of the Cardinal's show trial in St. Peter's Square. From the above article:

On 20 February, 1949, the Pope addressed a series of questions to "an enormous crowd which had gathered in St. Peter's Square" to protest the Cardinal'sshow trialand conviction. He asked, "Do you want a Church that remains silent when She should speak; that diminishes the law of God where she is called to proclaim it loudly, wanting to accommodate it to the will of man? Do you want a Church that departs from the unshakable foundations upon which Christ founded Her, taking the easy way of adapting Herself to the opinion of the day; a Church that is a prey to current trends; a Church that does not condemn the suppression of conscience and does not stand up for the just liberty of the people; a Church that locks Herself up within the four walls of Her temple in unseemly sycophancy, forgetting the divine mission received from Christ: 'Go out the crossroads and preach the people'? Beloved sons and daughters! Spiritual heirs of numberless confessors and martyrs! Is this the Church you venerate and love? Would you recognize in such a Church the features of your Mother? Would you be able to imagine a Successor of St. Peter submitting to such demands?"[17]

According to Sister Pascalina, who witnessed the rally, "In reply to the Holy Father came a single cry like thunder still ringing in our ears: 'No!'"[18]

Hebrews 10:19-25 and Mark 4:21 apply to us today more than ever.A friend of mine did not want me to wear my cross in the Paris airport of Orly the day after the Je Suis Charlie shootings.Of course, I did.Another person I know said that one should avoid contentious discussions. We do not need to be argumentative, but we do need to stand up for the Faith.Did you know that the psychological and psychiatric professions have defined an illness from the 1960s called Defiance Oppostional Disorder?I do not think it is an illness, but a way to control dissent from government policies. I was speaking with a medical person who looked it up in his manual.Can you guess which persons in history were labelled as having this?Can you guess?

Gandhi, Jesus Christ, Martin Luther King.....I wish I was making this up but I saw it in the text.

Now, there is a bill which may be passed either by Congress or the president forbidding people who look at "conspiracy websites" or such blogs from getting gun licenses.

We, the Catholics, will be next...and remember, this is what the Soviert Union did to millions of priests, nuns and religious, as well as dissenting lay people--give them a diagnosis of insanity and send them to the Gulag.

So, you go weekly and pray outside an abortion clinic, which is part of a national, federal health scheme?

Wednesday, 21 January 2015

We know who breaks up families and prevents families from being together,including my own.

This entity who causes divisions has a name.

St. Paul had to deal with this divisive spirit over and over.

I only know of one way to avoid divisions among the faithful and that is humility. If we are not humble and lowly with each other in the Church, we can cause unnecessary divisions.

Some divisions are necessary, like those between unbelievers and believers. Christ warned us and told us that He Himself brought about such divisions.

But, divisions among the faithful can be mended, and must be. Let us remember who we really are. Self-knowledge prevents pride.

Here is the Apostle of the Gentiles speaking on this point.

Here is the beginning of one of his epistles.

1 Corinthians 1 Douay-Rheims

1 Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Sosthenes a brother,

2 To the church of God that is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all that invoke the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, in every place of theirs and ours.

3 Grace to you, and peace from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.

4 I give thanks to my God always for you, for the grace of God that is given you in Christ Jesus,

5 That in all things you are made rich in him, in all utterance, and in all knowledge;

6 As the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you,

7 So that nothing is wanting to you in any grace, waiting for the manifestation of our Lord Jesus Christ.

8 Who also will confirm you unto the end without crime, in the day of the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

9 God is faithful: by whom you are called unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord.

10 Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no schisms among you; but that you be perfect in the same mind, and in the same judgment.

11 For it hath been signified unto me, my brethren, of you, by them that are of the house of Chloe, that there are contentions among you.

12 Now this I say, that every one of you saith: I indeed am of Paul; and I am of Apollo; and I am of Cephas; and I of Christ.

13 Is Christ divided? Was Paul then crucified for you? or were you baptized in the name of Paul?

14 I give God thanks, that I baptized none of you but Crispus and Caius;

15 Lest any should say that you were baptized in my name.

16 And I baptized also the household of Stephanus; besides, I know not whether I baptized any other.

17 For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel: not in wisdom of speech, lest the cross of Christ should be made void.

18 For the word of the cross, to them indeed that perish, is foolishness; but to them that are saved, that is, to us, it is the power of God.

19 For it is written: I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the prudence of the prudent I will reject.

20 Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?

21 For seeing that in the wisdom of God the world, by wisdom, knew not God, it pleased God, by the foolishness of our preaching, to save them that believe.

22 For both the Jews require signs, and the Greeks seek after wisdom:

23 But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews indeed a stumbling block, and unto the Gentiles foolishness:

24 But unto them that are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God.

25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

26 For see your vocation, brethren, that there are not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble:

27 But the foolish things of the world hath God chosen, that he may confound the wise; and the weak things of the world hath God chosen, that he may confound the strong.

Saturday, 17 January 2015

In Dublin, an interesting mini-shrine of Blessed Titus Brandsma stands on the left side of the church of Whitefriars.

Yesterday, I prayed to him for some of my specific needs. As some of you know, he was in Dublin for a while and the church there has letters from when Bl. Titus was in America.

This blessed, as patron of this blog, needs to inspire all of us at this time of changes. The changes in the political scene and in the atmosphere surrounding Church news create insecurity. However, as St. Teresa pointed out in her time, meditation and contemplative prayer become more important in times of trial than in times of peace.

To find that center of peace which only God can give must be developed by each one of us in order for us to withstand the temptations of cynicism and despair.

Praying before a saint who encountered one of the worst tyrannies in modern history, I realized that I had to have the type of moral and spiritual fiber of a Blessed Titus.

We all have different walks to God. Each call is unique. However, in this time of upheaval, and, in my humble opinion, we are witnessing a crossroad in European history, all of us must develop the type of serenity and focus so clearly witnessed in the life and death of Blessed Titus Brandsma.

Tuesday, 13 January 2015

Those in Europe are entering into a new time of trial. Forces which hate old Christendom and monarchies based on Catholicism, which hate the spiritual power of the Catholic Church, have become obvious in the past month.

We cannot ignore the boundaries which are being set up by those who do not value what we do-free speech, freedom of artistic expression, poetry, beauty, art, music and so on.

Hell must be drab compared with the constant joy and praise which is heaven. To be a Catholic means that we partake in heaven a bit on earth, such as in the Holy Mass, or when praying the Divine Liturgy.

In my humble opinion, Catholics must face what it means to have a Catholic identity in these times and happily embrace that identity.

The first way to preserve Catholic identity is to stay close to Holy Mother Church in doctrine, dogma, sacramental life, the worship of Christ in the Eucharist, which would be central to the Faith.

The second way is to go to Mary, the Theotokos, a Woman who had to face hostility towards Her Son, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity and finally go herself into exile to Ephesus with her "adopted son" St. John.

There is no suffering the Mater Dolorosa has not experience in and through Her Son. The Seven Dolors are known to most of us: The Prophecy of Simeon, in Luke; the Flight into Egypt in Matthew; the Finding of the Child Jesus in the Temple, in Luke; the meeting of Mary with Christ on the way to Calvary; the Death of Jesus Christ, in John; the Piercing of the Side and the Holding of Christ at the Foot of the Cross, the Pieta in Matthew; and the Burial of Christ in John.

In this moment of history, let us go to Mary, ponder the sorrows she endured, think about the way of suffering which can purify us all if we cooperate with grace, and stop pretending that things will go on as they always have gone on.

The days of Christendom and, perhaps, even secular humanism, are fast disappearing.

More than ever, we should go to Mary. Mary is the Mother of Europe, the Mother of the Church. She will not abandon us or ignore our prayers.

Friday, 9 January 2015

I am in France and the events of the last three days have impressed upon all of us the uncertainty, insecurity and brevity of life.

Let me share one or two thoughts from this horrible set of events which have gripped the nation here.

One should be prepared for death at all times. One may be shopping, or visiting friends in an office, or at work and such violent people who hate the West could interfere with one's life and happiness.

A person may be walking down the street, or going to church and find one's self in the presence of danger.

We live in dangerous times. We live in times prophesied by such great minds as G. K. Chesterton and Hilaire Belloc.

We live in times when those who hate Christ, the Church and the Western civilization will try and destroy us.

Be prepared. Stay in sanctifying grace. If you are not, get there.

Be real and face the situation.

Go to confession, pray to be ready for anything.

Hamlet said, "The readiness is all" and it is more true today than for a long time

Saturday, 3 January 2015

I do not advertise my blog on this one, but I know there are many people confused about the synodal documents. Starting on January 1st, I have over fifteen posts on the heresies behind some of the ideas coming out of the cardinals from Germany and America specifically. Please feel free to ask questions, as we must, as Catholics be very clear as to what is being pushed by some church leaders, as opposed to the long teaching on marriage and same-sex active relations.The problems are, in a nutshell, these:First, there was an attack on the Liturgy, starting in the years after Vatican II. Then, there was an attack on the priesthood, with the undermining of the priest's role in the Church and the rising, especially in England, of latent anti-clericism. After that, there was an attack on the sacraments, especially marriage and the Eucharist, which has come to a head this last October. Now, there is an attack on grace and the Church's teaching on predilection.In addition, there is also an attack on the entire set of truths about the Fall of Man, Original Sin and even the Redemption of Christ. Next, there will be an attack on the very nature of God's relationship to humans.

Unless the laity understand that all of these attacks are diabolical in nature and come from those who want to Protestantize the Church, the lay person will become more confused. We do not have to be confused, as we have the resources to find out the truth and error of all positions.This takes time and commitment. God bless you all, and please take time to follow up on some of those posts.

Thursday, 1 January 2015

When I was a young person, in my twenties, as a member of the Boomers, some pundits wrote and talked about the "vibrancy" of my generation. Firstly, there were so many of us that we could hardly be ignored. Secondly, we were the last group to get classical education in America before the rot set in, many of us having a true liberal arts education based on the Trivium and Quadrivium. Thirdly, we were fiercely competitive and "on the make" type of kids. Most of us strove after professional careers and worked hard at being the best.

The times had not seen the gross inflation which was to change forever the ideal of family life, nor the long succession of political problems such as the Iran Contra Affair and the resignation of Richard Nixon. The worst thing in our corporate memories was the assassination of Kennedy when we were kids. This "vibrancy" came from confidence and trust in the civilization, the cultural identities in which we moved and lived.

We all knew and understood that we had a place not only in the home, and school, but in the Church.

The Church experiencing a vibrancy as well, as many of us had flirted with other "isms" and come back home, happily embracing the new life of the emerging laity with joy and interest. Most of my peer group got married and started to have children immediately.

The Catholic parishes in my state were growing so fast that new schools and new churches were being built almost constantly, one after the other.

This vibrancy lasted about ten years, a decade, until the realities of political unrest, inflation, and the awareness of the quickly growing secularism which cut across religious communities became deadly obvious. By the mid-eighties, the vibrancy was fading and a new attitude of utilitarianism took the place of optimism. This utilitarianism, always an underlying current in the States, became more and more sinister with the Age of Greed and the new "Me Generation" of the Gen-Xers who lacked community and the old cohesiveness of a religious and moral framework.

I stopped teaching from the end of the summer semester of 1986 until the the autumn semester of 1996, ten full years, and I saw the huge difference in students. Cynicism and relativism, subjectivism and a lack of competitiveness marked these students. Something happened to smash any vibrancy of youth and the natural optimism of the young.

I learned quickly that the end of the Gen-X group had lost confidence and were increasingly a bunch of unhappy, isolated kids.

What had happened? The obvious answer presented itself when I took a survey in class as to religious affiliations of my students. The vast majority had never been to church, or were fallen away, or even into weird and wild New Age cults. Until I stopped teaching in December 2010, I rarely witnessed the peace and confidence I had seen in my students from 1979 on.

One thing had happened. An entire generation had grown up without a moral framework, an idea of God, a sense of religion based church communities. Ah yes community became the buzz-word, but one only talks about something after it has gone, like love.

The vibrancy of one generation had come from a sense of being children of God and heirs of heaven. People knew who they were and the ultimate goal of their lives. Happiness would be a by-product of a virtuous life.

Until I taught Millennials, who are a breed apart and very individualistic and more idealistic than their parents, I never met a class which was full of life and vigor. It was my job to instill this love of life and God somehow in my students, even without talking about it.

How did I do this, because I did and I was successful? By loving learning and teaching my students to pursue knowledge not for an utilitarian end for knowledge for the sake of knowledge. I knew that the meaning of "liberal art" was not license but freedom, freedom to think, to be, to do.

Vibrancy comes from within the soul. Those who find meaning in life cannot help but share that with others. Life just spills out. The energy and activity of those days are long gone, replaced by a silent narcissism which seems to be a protective shield against the unknown. Sin kills the soul and death replaces life. The person without a live soul has no vibrancy.

I am convinced that the field is ripe for the harvest, that if we preach the Good News of the Gospel, which is our duty, and not merely a suggestion from God, there are those who do not want to curl up and die who will take in this message of life like little hungry birds.

I have seen this happen. Those geeky, computer-gamers are more "romantic" and great seekers than their jade parents. They want more than stuff, as they see clearly that stuff did not make their parents happy. They do want to recapture something, but most of them do not know what this something is.

We do. We know Who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. We only need to be open to these young people of any nationality who have had everything and know it means nothing.

Become vibrant if you are not. Pray for new life on this first day of the new year. Pray like you have never prayed before for eyes to see Life in all His Beauty so that you can share this with those who need and want the God of Love and Order, the God of Boundaries, Mercy and Justice.

We are the remnant, and the remnant is getting smaller daily. Time to bring in the sheaves....we need these young people as much as they need us. To be vibrant ourselves means dying to self and letting God be God in us. God brings new energy and new life. There is no other way.

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Members of The Guild of Blessed Titus Brandsma are Catholic bloggers and users of the new media who seek to share their faith online. We are inspired by the vision of the New Evangelisation called for by Blessed Pope John Paul II, Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis.

"Thanks to the new communications media, the Lord can walk the streets of our cities and, stopping before the threshold of our homes and our hearts, say once more: “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will enter his house and dine with him, and he with me” (Rev 3:20)" Pope Benedict XVI's Message for the 44th World Communications Day.

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Contributions to this blog are made by men and women who are members of a Guild for Catholic bloggers under the patronage of Blessed Titus Brandsma. Contributors are loyal to the Magisterium of the Catholic Church and to the Successor of St Peter. The Guild of Blessed Titus Brandsma blog aims to raise the profile of the Catholic Faith as well as to inform, inspire and educate the laity and evangelise the United Kingdom. Contributors will write on a range of subjects including theology, liturgy, canon law and apologetics.

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GUILD PRAYER

God our Father, source of life and freedom, through Your Holy Spirit you gave the Carmelite, Titus Brandsma the courage to affirm human dignity even in the midst of suffering and degrading persecution.

Grant us that same spirit so that, in refusing all compromise with error we may always and everywhere give coherent witness to Your abiding presence among us.